The present invention relates to a seat belt device for retaining human passengers, and relates in particular to a seat belt retractor having a casing provided at a central portion of a vehicle body floor, the casing being equipped with a pair of winding shafts therein on which two seat belts are rolled.
FIGS. 1 and 2 show such a type of prior art seat belt device including a retractor R having a casing 1 fixed a central portion of a vehicle body floor F. The casing 1 is equipped with a pair of winding shafts 3 each winding thereon the webbing 2a of a seat belt 2. The retractor R is attached to a center console 5 fixed between the driver's seat 4 and the adjacent passenger's seat (not shown). The webbings 2a of the two seat belts 2 extend through the vertical slots 5a which are formed in the front portion of the center console 5.
The webbings 2a, 2a of the seat belts 2, 2 are pulled in parallel from the winding shafts in the prior art retractor R, as shown in FIG. 2, the upper end of each seat belt 2 is connected to a slider 6b sliding forwardly or backwardly along a guide rail 6a at the side of the roof 6 in response to the opening and closing of a door 40. Thus, the upper edge of the webbing 2a has a tendency to become sloppy and slack near the winding shaft 3, which may prevent smooth winding of the webbing 2a onto the winding shaft 3.
In order to avoid such winding problems, the retractor R can be inclined with respect to the vehicle body floor F in such a way that the seat belts 2 can better fit on the passengers. However, in such a case, more space in the console is required.